MANNA
by alittleclosetohome
Summary: Two years ago the British counterpart to S.H.I.E.L.D., S.T.R.I.K.E.., was dissolved and replaced by two organisations, W.H.O. and MI: 13. When the Director of MI: 13 gets wind of a new team over at S.H.I.E.L.D., taking the name of their defunct organisation, he thinks little of it. When it turns out they're HYDRA sleepers, things get complicated. Six OCs. Bucky/OC OC/OC comic/film


"_Shrapnel, Savant_, you're Alpha Team for this one. I want eyes on and wheels off that entire convoy in ten." Their leader's voice crackled over the earpieces each _**M.**__**A**__**.**__**N**__**.**__**N**__**.A.**_ member wore. Female. Indian-English. Accent so clipped it could cut glass. Perched so high with her sniper rifle trained on the convoy that she was practically unnoticeable to everyone. The six person team that was strategically stationed around the overhang she had claimed in the middle of a dusty desert was watching a convoy of five land rovers tackle the harsh conditions admirably. "_Guardian_, you're working protection for Beta Team. When you're in place, find out which rover has our target, once we're certain I want _Discord_ and _Kindred_ extracting the target."

"Copy that, _Arkangel_, Guardian on the move." Another voice cut over the quiet static of an open channel, the softer lilt of a southern Irish man, and her second in command. The tall, dreadlocked Black-Irish man moved swiftly across the crust of red dirt to get closer to the women crouched behind a boulder. "Beta Team, keep in my line of sight at all costs," He rolled his shoulders and splayed his fingers, concentrating on creating an invisible kinetic shield around the other two. "I can't project and protect shit if you drop off my grid."

"Roger." Answered two female voices, tracking his movements with their eyes. Discord tossed her ponytail of black hair over her shoulder and spat a strand out of her mouth while Kindred tugged at her blonde braid impatiently. The French-Scottish women used their uniquely Gallic accents in two very different ways during their negotiation missions, on missions like this one however, they even moved in sync.

"Right away, Arkangel. Alpha Team in place and ready to go on your command." The Japanese-English man who spoke answered to the codename Shrapnel and clapped a hand on the back of the smaller man, Savant, next to him. "Your first run with us as a proper team and you're already on a rescue, huh, kid?" He laughed, a deep and resonant sound that seemed to fit with the grenades and plastic explosives he had on his person. Savant returned the laugh weakly and ran a hand backwards through his dyed red hair. Welsh-Iranian and fresh to the team, Savant felt less and less as confident as his codename postulated and more and more like a newbie to the Army, let alone M.A.N.N.A. His teammate seemed to sense his nervousness and softened his tone a little while motioning for him to start using his mechanical manipulation powers to manoeuvre _**MI: 13**_'s satellites into position for Guardian to start tracking their target. Currently the harsh terrain was doing their job of stalling the convoy long enough for the other man to start planting his mini surprises on their route rather well. "You're one of us now, Savant." Shrapnel said firmly, "We look after our own." He gestured vaguely upwards after planting something explosive in the ground. "And Arkangel looks after us."

–

Aparajita Tzvariel Arkwright, codenamed Arkangel, was a Mutant. She was also tall, tan skinned, brown haired, and green eyed. And yet none of the above mattered to her quite as much as being a soldier.

She considered her career in the British Army as a Paramedic one of the best things she'd ever done with her life, and her promotion to _**S.T.R.I.K.E.**_ had seemed simultaneously ridiculous and logical once her Mutant abilities were outed. Being given full combat training to counterpart her medical degree had seemed oxymoronic at the time and being given command of her own team that she could handpick herself only made sense to her after a year's service. With her drive to excel, however, it seemed only natural. The fact that she used it to elevate exceptional individuals she'd worked with previously regardless of X-Gene or lack thereof was a galling blow to many Anti-Mutant campaigners, but during their four year run their results were inarguably spectacular.

The dissolution of the **S**pecial **T**actical **R**eserve for **I**nternational **K**ey **E**mergencies was a blow to everyone, the loss of the British counterpart to _**S.H.I.E.L.D. **_left Britain without protection against any superpowered threat, and her team was disbanded alongside their parent organisation.

A year later, Jita had transferred and begun running various S.H.I.E.L.D. missions with other agents__before being approached by an old co-worker, now director of MI:13, Pete Wisdom. He came to her offering two very important things:

Her old S.T.R.I.K.E. apartment in Covent Garden returned.

Her old team back by her side.

It wasn't a hard decision to make and within a week she'd said her goodbyes to America, flown back to London, and found her old team awaiting her new orders. Though they'd all changed over the course of their time apart, they were stronger for it. They even got a codename as a team.

The **M**ilitary **A**id, **N**egotiation and **N**eutralisation **A**lliance.

And when you find yourself trapped in the desert, you could call manna a blessing from god.

–

When Shrapnel (Tai Sampson when kicking back with his friends) pressed the detonator in his hand, the explosions were short, sharp, and professionally executed. The chassis on each car died a death without causing injury to the occupants of the military-grade rovers, and said occupants were already leaping out of their vehicles. There was a reason he could hold his own as the lone human on a team of Mutants, he was damn good at his job.

"Heh." Tai laughed slightly, "Stupid." He nudged Savant with an elbow; the smaller man, Fakir Suda to his parents, stumbled a little under the force of the move but appreciated the camaraderie. He tried to focus on his orders and following them to the letter, disappointing his new CO wasn't one of the things he wanted to do on his first real field mission with the illustrious team, so he knelt behind the boulder they were watching from, closing his eyes and trying to sense the thrum and life of each engine. This was _his_ power. Mechanical Manipulation. The ability to feel the very heart of everything not-flesh and the know-how to bend it to his will. And yet before Jita had approached him personally, he'd never even considered any form of heroism. Now that he was unlocking rover doors from 50 meters away and flicking engines off with his mind, he couldn't help but wonder why.

"Alpha Team clear, Arkangel." Tai spoke into the radio on his wrist and heard the terse noise of appreciation on the other end.

"Good work, Shrapnel, Savant. Beta, you're up." Jita watched her team through the scope of her sniper rifle, Discord and Kindred moving among the displaced kidnappers without being noticed once. Her lips curled into a smile. When she'd first met Discord, then merely one Private Samantha Delancy, she hadn't known two things about her. One, that she would one day become her most skilled infiltrator and Corporal. And two, that she was even in the room.

Samantha's Mutant power had manifested at a young age, resulting in much confusion. People simply didn't notice her unless she actively concentrated on her visibility, and though this came at the price of constant headaches, Imperceptibility was useful in the path of petty crime she had started to walk before Jita had picked her up. She was twenty when recruited on the request of her parents, high ranking S.T.R.I.K.E. R&D scientists and personal friends of Jita before their untimely deaths. Instead of one day becoming a supervillain, Sam dedicated herself to proving herself worthy of her parent's final invention that was under the safeguard of her CO until she could be trusted with it. An inducer that kept her visible without effort on her part. Jita had handed her the necklace alongside a promotion the day they first failed a mission and lost their previous Corporal. The act gained the girl's undying devotion.

Kindred, on the other hand, was the polar opposite of her teammate and lover. Born and raised to the wealth and old money of the Kales, Aurora Kale was gifted with a bitterly ironic gift that would, one day, lead to her estrangement from her family. The worst possible thing a child of a family whose fortune was built on the back of others could gain as a Mutant power was a conscience. As an Empath, Rory had long since felt the pain of those wronged by her family's media empire, and had donated chunks of her fortune to make reparations on their behalf. Her ability to feel the emotions of others wasn't her only manifestation, however, and her Empathy reached new levels when she discovered, quite by accident, that she could copy the powers of one nearby Mutant. She applied to work in S.T.R.I.K.E. at the age of eighteen and by the age of twenty one, she'd joined the ranks of people Jita had worked with and taken note of. The rest, when Jita was given her command, was simple.

The woman in question shifted her weight on the rocky outcrop she was lying on and angled her scope to check on Guardian while the women picked their way gently through the people now searching frantically under and around their rovers for the sources of the blasts. Aric Green had been her second in command for as long as she'd held a command post and had been her long-time friend since they were both thirteen. Always an exceptionally tall person, he'd never been intimated by her own height or her stern mannerisms, and she'd never been intimidated by his loud laughter or large build. His power of projecting a defensive shield around himself and his allies had always made sense to Jita, his protective nature has long since been demonstrated to her many times. With small animals rescued from the side of the road, to later on in life, taking a bullet for her during their only mission that ever went wrong.

"We've got the target in hand, Arkangel. Permission to initiate extraction?" Kindred's voice crackled over her earphone and Jita pulled her scope and mind back from Guardian and to the rover he'd sent the women towards. She drew a breath, gearing herself up for what would come next.

"Permission granted, Kindred. Everyone, form up on the third rover and begin on three." She responded to the chorus of 'affirmatives' in her ear with a small smile.

"One." Jita zoomed her scope in on the knee of the closest kidnapper to the rover her team was on.

"Two." Fakir felt his nerves rattle slightly as he prepared to rip the vehicles apart. Tai threw him a smile. Fakir tried not to dwell on it.

"Three." Discord grabbed the hands of the kidnapped man, a cabinet minister who was vocal about his Pro-Mutant stance, much to the chagrin of some people. She pulled him out of the car as Kindred covered her, pulling a combat knife from her boot and stabbing it into the nearest kidnapper's leg, dropping him to his knees before she kicked him in the head so hard he fell unconscious. Guardian pulled his assault rifle from his back and hit three others, now alerted to the presence of several Mutants in their midst.

Jita watched her team continue to work, noting the explosions and laughter that usually went with Tai's actions and watching her newest addition, Fakir, work on ripping the kidnapper's transport to shreds with his mind. She almost felt proud as she shot the kneecaps of another kidnapper who had noticed the fleeing Discord with the aid of a thermal scanner. When the remaining kidnappers were taken care of Jita finally spoke again.

"Sound off, anyone injured?" She stood finally, silhouetted against the sunlight and watching the specks of her team on the ground.

"Bruised but alive, Arkangel. Though I think the new guy's all shook up." Arin answered her, looking over each team member in turn. Fakir shot him a slightly wounded look as Jita laughed lowly over their earphones.

"He's allowed. I can't say we were better the first time." She took a step forward, off the edge of the overhang and into thin air, feeling the rush of it on her face. For a moment she regretted keeping her hair up in a bun all the time, but only for a moment. The next moment she had concentrated and completed her step forward. Her foot no longer hung in the air, instead it impacted with solid ground. She had just Flash Stepped her way down to be with her team. Jita placed a hand on Fakir's shoulder and smiles slightly. "Congratulations, Savant. You're one of us for good now." The smile slid off her face as she turned back to face her team, and the freed minister, she made a circling motion above her head with a finger and Guardian started calling in their extraction helicopter.

"Twenty four drops and not one kill, people." Jita noted, soundly slightly cheered, "We do bloody good work." She turned back to Guardian as Discord and Kindred began talking to the cabinet minster, having noted her second's mild frown as he spoke into his comms unit. He looked up to meet her eye as he finished his conversation with the person on the other end of his line. She tilted her head in a question. "What is it, Arin?"

"The Director wants to speak to you, Jee." Arin's frown deepened further, "Said it had something to do with Joset."

Jita's jaw clenched at the memory.


End file.
